A medical elongate member housing tool (e.g., a guide wire housing tool) for accommodating a medical elongate member (e.g., guide wire) is known. A known guide wire housing tool includes one tubular member wound spirally such that a proximal portion thereof is placed on the inner periphery side and a distal portion thereof is placed on the outer periphery side, and the guide wire is accommodated in the tubular member. An example of this is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-346075.
When the guide wire is to be used, liquid such as, for example, a physiological salt solution is first supplied from the proximal portion of the tubular member of the guide wire housing tool into the tubular member. Consequently, the liquid contacts a portion of the distal portion of the guide wire, which has a hydrophilic property, and a lubricating property is exhibited. Then, the guide wire is taken out from the guide wire housing tool. At this time, the distal portion of the guide wire is grasped by the user's fingers to pull out the guide wire from the distal portion of the tubular member.
However, in such a known guide wire housing tool, in order to cause liquid to contact the portion of the distal portion of the guide wire which has a hydrophilic property to exhibit the lubrication property, since the liquid is supplied from the proximal portion of the tubular member, it is necessary to fill the liquid into substantially the entire tubular member. Therefore, for example, in the case of a guide wire having a length of 400 cm, since the amount of the liquid to be used is great, if a small-capacity syringe which is used frequently in the medical care site is used, the liquid must be injected using many syringes and numbers of injections so that significant labor and time are required.
Further, when the guide wire is to be taken out from the guide wire housing tool, since the distal portion of the guide wire is grasped by fingers of a hand to pull out the guide wire, there is a drawback that the fingers of a hand contact a portion of the distal portion of the guide wire (portion at which a lubricating property is exhibited).